Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 565 



hand, 38 on the next, the foliage of the plant perfect and green. 

 I asked you and Mrs. Loudon to taste the fruit, knowing that it 

 was generally disliked, and spoken badly of. You wished me 

 to remind you of an observation I made, which is, that the fruit 

 of the Musa should not, on any account, be touched with a knife, 

 either in gathering it, or in eating it : if cut with a knife the flavour 

 is spoilt. The fruit should be left on the plant to ripen, should 

 not be gathered before it is perfectly ripe, and then not kept 

 long before being eaten. [The flavour of the fruit was decidedly 

 superior to that of any bananas we had before tasted ; doubtless 

 in part owing to its being fresh gathered.] 



Cj/cas revotiita, a noble plant, with a head of 700 fruit on it. 

 Stem 3 ft. 2 in. high; the girt, 18 in. above the top of the tub, 

 3 ft. 4^ in.; circumference of the head of fruit 4 ft. Sin. In 

 March, 1841, the stem measured only 1 ft. 11 in.; but, after re- 

 moving the top surface, I applied a quantity of charcoal, mixed 

 with some loam, as a top dressing, which caused it to make the 

 above-mentioned extraordinary growth, the most wonderful I 

 ever had the pleasure of seeing. 



Doryanthes eoccelsa, flower-stem 16 ft. high. 



Sabal Blackbwniana, a noble plant. 



Strelitzla regince with seven spikes of flowers. 



Vapyrus antiqubnim, 14 ft. high with ten stems. 



Dillinia specibsa, 6 ft. high. 



Musa sapientum, a young plant 4 ft. high, planted out last 

 March into a quantity of loam and charcoal, the trunk of which 

 this day measures 14 ft. 6 in. high, with leaves reaching to the 

 very top of the house (33 ft. high) ; the base of the stem measures 

 3 ft. 3 in. in circumference. The above may perhaps be doubted, 

 but it is true. 



Musa Dacca. Four suckers were planted on the same day as 

 the above Musa sapientum, and in the same kind of preparation, 

 and their progress is quite as astonishing ; they being, when 

 planted, respectively from 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. high. M. Dacca is a 

 more dwarf-growing species than M. sapientum, nevertheless the 

 stems of the four plants are from 9 ft. to 11 ft. high, leaves 9 ft. 

 in length, circumference of stems from 2 ft. 4 in. to 2 ft. 8 in. 



Chamce^rops excelsa Lodd. Cat., a noble plant. 



Pandanus odoratissimus, very fine. 



Fnrace^a longce s va, two fine plants of it, the circumference of 

 their stems 22 in., and 4 ft. high. 



Latania rubra, fine. 



Coffea arabica, two plants 10 ft. 6 in. high. 



Stdtice arbbrea, very fine. 



Cycas circinalis, a fine plant. 



Luculia gratissima, 7 ft. high. 



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